Developer will reassemble the structure near its original site at 11th and Indiana streets

Workers continue to dismantle the old Varsity House on Wednesday near the northwest corner of 11th and Indiana streets. The house is being moved closer to the corner to make way for an apartment complex, but the method of moving it — taking it apart — was not expected by historic preservationists.

The old Varsity House at 11th and Indiana streets decades ago housed the starters of the Kansas University football team.

Soon, the early 1900s-era home will have more pieces to put back together than the current Jayhawks squad.

The home at 1043 Ind. is being dismantled piece by piece so that it can be moved closer to the corner of 11th and Indiana streets to make way for a 50-plus unit apartment complex being developed by Lawrence businessman Thomas Fritzel.

But historic preservationists and neighbors weren’t expecting the house to be moved in this way.

“When I was told they were going to relocate the house by dismantling it, I was shocked,” said Dennis Brown, president of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance. “But there is nothing we can do about it.”

Fritzel and the Lawrence Preservation Alliance reached a deal this year where the alliance dropped its opposition to Fritzel’s apartment development in exchange for Fritzel agreeing to move the house closer to the corner. Originally, Fritzel had proposed tearing the house down, and then later offered to move the house to the north end of the lot. Preservationists objected to both ideas before reaching the compromise to move the house to the south.

But the compromise didn’t spell out how the house would be moved. Fritzel has decided to dismantle the house — recently the roof and attic were removed — place the pieces on a flatbed trailer, store the pieces off site, and then bring the house back to the site and reassemble it. Brown said he recognizes the compromise reached with Fritzel didn’t spell out how the house would be moved, but he said he is concerned that the dismantling of the structure will ruin the integrity of the house.

“I don’t understand how it will ever be the same house again,” Brown said. “All I can do is hope that they prove me wrong.”

Fritzel had little to say about the project recently. He didn’t offer any details about the process or the decision. Via e-mail, he expressed surprise that people were concerned about the process.

“Why would anyone worry about how we are doing our job,” Fritzel wrote in response to questions from the Journal-World.

Paul Werner, a Lawrence architect who is designing the apartment project, said he thinks the house will be reassembled back on the site in about six months, but he referred other questions to Fritzel.

The house — which is unique in that it was designed by the mother of Edward Tanner, the chief designer for Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza area — couldn’t remain in its original location because it would interfere with plans for the apartment complex.

City officials approved the dismantling method. Scott McCullough, the city’s director of planning and development services, said he could understand why moving the house completely off-site would make for a more efficient construction project at the dense corner of 11th and Indiana streets.

“We had to recognize the construction challenges on the site,” McCullough said.

Once reassembled, the structure will serve as a boarding house next to the new apartment development, which will be unique in itself. It will be the first apartment complex in the Oread neighborhood to provide below-ground parking.

You hit the proverbial nail on the head... I said long ago that the house would never survive the move, either by fire or some kind of moving "mishap". Just too bad that the LPA overlooked making the conditions of the move specific, as in "intact". Damn...

They just as well torn the house down. They have trahsed it now and it will never be the same. All the plaster work was torn down and thrown away. All the brink on the fireplace was torn down and trashed. Who are they fooling??? What a joke!

Don't you get it Toto? The mentioning of John Stavros is extremely witty and brilliant. Mr. Wilbur has brought him up in about 112 straight posts, just waiting for someone to realize just how witty and brilliant it is. I get it Mr. Wilbur, I get it. You are amazingly witty and your biting commentary is something to behold. Each time I gaze upon one of your posts a new world of clarity and logic is opened.

Oh, you mean the long standing student hangouts of the Crossing and Yello Sub? Yeah, I saw them. At least they fit the environs typically found on the fringe of a university, unlike that behemoth now standing composed of faux limestone glued on a concrete shell.

Nothing stinks of falsity more than that monstrosity and its clientele.

It will be successful if they put it back together the way it was before. They demolished a third of the structure yesterday. That is a part they won't ever get back. Good thing they didn't apply for tax credits. They wouldn't have gotten any.

Its too bad the groups that are dictating to others what they can do with their own property do not have any money. They could buy the entire area of the Oread neighborhood and do with it what they please.